Search engines are powerful tools for finding content on the Internet. Some of these search tools have been extended so that people can find services in a specified area or near a specified address. For example, a person may append use a city name to a search query (e.g. “New York” or “Helsinki”) in order to specify the search area. This, however, may give search results in a very wide area, thus requiring the user to go through a large amount of irrelevant results. Another option is to use a specific address or postal code to define the area, and the search results are limited and/or ranked based on distance from the address/code. This can be effective, but only if the user is aware of a specific address where they are currently located. When a person is on the go, they often are unaware of any such address. Even when the address is known, the entry of an address also requires a fair amount of typing, which can be inconvenient for small devices such as cell phones or personal digital assistants (PDA).
Another option is to search from an already visible portion of a map. This requires that the user browse to or search for the correct general area and then zoom the map to restrict the search area. This minimizes the amount of typing needed, but the swapping in and out of map images can be very expensive in terms of network and processing bandwidth. Notwithstanding the above, refining search results based on physical location is highly useful for providers of products and services, as well as for consumers who are interested in locating those providers.